Head in the Clouds
Directed by John Duigan, 2004
Staring Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend and Penelope Cruz
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This is a wartime romance set in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Gilda Besse (Theron), daughter of an American socialite and French Count, is a worldly woman of the post World War I era who settles in Paris as a fashion photographer. Guy (Townsend) is a student from Northern Ireland who first meets Gilda at Cambridge where he was a student and she was dating one of the masters. A friendship develops between them and is maintained as she sets off to tour the world and he finishes school and becomes a school teacher in London's east end.
Guy is an an idealist concerned with the plight of the poor and downtrodden and is especially troubled by the struggle against the Fascists in Spain. Gilda, on the other hand, seeks to experience life to the fullest and lives for the moment unhindered by the past or the future. When Gilda ends her wandering and settles in Paris her love affair with Guy again blossoms and he joins her in Paris. Guy works as Gilda's assistant and lives with her and Mia, a refugee from the Civil War in Spain who models for Gilda, in Gilda's apartment. The three lovers enjoy the bohemian life of Paris in the 1930s but Guy and Mia become increasingly troubled by the Fascist atrocities in Spain and the two of them ultimately break up with Gilda and go to Spain where Guy joins the Republican forces as a soldier and Mia as a nurse.
Returning to England following the defeat of the Republican side in Spain, Guy longs to make contact again with Gilda but World War II blocks all contact with Paris. Joining the British Army as an intelligence officer, Guy spends the war behind the lines working with the underground French Resistance. While on an undercover mission to Paris he meets Gilda who is now dating a high ranking Nazi SS officer. Guy faces the choice of his love for Gilda or duty to his cause.
The review of this Movie prepared by Chuck Nugent